standardairlines

Jack Frye (left) Paul Richter (right) likely at their altitude record 1929

Between Frye and Richter (founders of TWA) is National Aeronautic Association (NAA) timekeeper and former race car driver, Joe Nikrent. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Frye en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Richter en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Nikrent

Jack Frye to the left, former race car driver Joe Nikrent (center, of the National Aeronautic Association (NAA)), Paul Richter (right) after Frye and Richter (soon to found TWA) set a new altitude record in September 1929 of 23,200 feet in the Fokker F-10A (NC581K; c/n 1055) in the background. Frye and Richter would be responsible for the establishment of TWA. See: dmairfield.com/airplanes/NC581K/index.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_E._Richter en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Frye en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Nikrent

Although this aircraft is obviously named "The Texan", it is not NC7888, the first aircraft of Standard Airlines to bear that name. NC7888 (c/n 617) was a Fokker F.VIIa with a single Pratt & Whitney Hornet R-1690 engine. It was lost in a crash on March 30, 1929. The shape of this airplane's cockpit and nose section shows that it is the second Standard Airlines aircraft to be named "The Texan", NC9169 (c/n 1038), a U.S.-built Fokker F-10A "Super Trimotor", powered by three Pratt & Whitney Wasp R-1340 engines, and built in July 1929, several months after the loss of NC7888. It only kept its name for a year before being sold to Western Air Express; it then passed to Transcontinental & Western Air and to American Airways before being scrapped in 1932.